While everyone's getting distracted by the Petreaus/Benghazi/etc shiny objects...

THIS is something to get really excited about and should be front page news in the US.

However, while the US mainstream media focus on salacious stories about affairs and what's the biggest concern of the losers of the election, the best/most informative article on what the President had to say during his 1st post-election press conference has to come from the UK...

Obama vows to take personal charge of climate change in second term

Barack Obama claimed climate change as a personal mission of his second term on Wednesday, offering for the first time to take charge of the effort to find a bipartisan solution to the existential crisis.

Obama, speaking in the first White House press conference since his re-election, acknowledged his first term had made only limited progress on climate change. But he promised to remain personally engaged in getting Republicans and Democrats to agree on a course of action.

"So what I am going to be doing over the next several weeks, the next several months, is having a conversation – a wide-ranging conversation – with scientists, engineers and elected officials to find out what more we can do to make short term progress," he said. "You can expect that you will hear more from me in the coming months and years about how we can shape an agenda that garners bipartisan support and help moves this agenda forward."

The comments were Obama's most expansive in years on the dangers of climate change and his strategy for addressing the problem. It was also the first time Obama said he would take personal charge of climate change.

11. Al will be at the table when the talks begin

K&R

I would send each and every attendee a copy of An Inconvenient Truth, in advance of the conference, along with all the stats on Hurricane Sandy. Including photos of the damage. I look forward to hearing what Al says later today.

And you are right. One needs to take a look at The Guardian each and every day to keep up on what's going on over here. Another place to go here in the US (besides DU ), is DemocracyNow.org.

10. Kick and rec. n/t

12. Thanks, Turborama...

... for tipping us off to this news about our country, from The Guardian in ENGLAND. Really, everyone here needs to click on that link above and bookmark that sucker. And check it out everyday. I wonder if the BBC will cover Obama's statement on the environment? I bet they do.